This is an English adaptation of a FoodBud historical article originally published on June 28, 2022.
Hongwanshe reported that Niu Shuangshuang, a Shanghai-based community hotpot concept, had raised a nearly RMB 10 million angel round from Plum Ventures and Zhilian Capital. Founder Zhang Shuang said the funding would be used to improve upstream supply-chain digitization and expand stores steadily.
At the time of the June 2022 article, the brand operated one 120-square-meter community store in Shanghai's Baoshan District. It opened on January 28, 2022. Before Shanghai's COVID disruption, daily revenue reached about RMB 20,000. During the April 2022 outbreak, the store secured supply-guarantee status; after dine-in resumed, daily revenue was still around RMB 20,000.
Hotpot was already a highly competitive category, and COVID restrictions had made operations harder. Citing data from Hotpot Canjian Data Research Institute, the article said nearly 70% of hotpot restaurants nationwide had suspended dine-in for more than half a month, while 92.3% of reopened stores had not recovered to normal revenue levels.
Zhang Shuang's background is supply chain. Before founding Niu Shuangshuang, she was the Jilin general agent for Yang Guo Fu Malatang. In 2019, using less than RMB 3 million and her supply-chain resources, she founded Chuandinghui, a hotpot and barbecue ingredient business. Its assortment covered hotpot bases, beef and mutton, frozen and fresh products, Sichuan snacks, fresh vegetables, meatballs and paste products, and hotpot and barbecue tools, totaling as many as 350 categories.
Chuandinghui used a B2B plus B2C model. After hotpot-ingredient supermarkets became popular in 2020, its store count grew from just over a dozen to more than 800, covering Wuhan, Jiangsu, Zhejiang, Shanghai, Anhui, Fujian, Henan, Hebei, Jiangxi, Shanxi, Shandong and other markets. Chuandinghui's 2020 revenue exceeded RMB 100 million.
Zhang argued that community hotpot still had room to grow because:
She cited examples from county-level markets around Chongqing: a 350-square-meter store, with monthly rent of RMB 10,000, could generate RMB 10,000 in daily revenue and RMB 80,000-90,000 in monthly net profit, relying largely on word of mouth and natural traffic.
Niu Shuangshuang positioned itself around "fresh-braised items plus hotpot." Zhang described three operating advantages.
First, braised items could extend effective operating hours. Hotpot performs better in winter, while summer traffic can shift toward barbecue and braised snacks. Pairing braised items with hotpot helped balance seasonality.
Second, standalone braised-item orders at Niu Shuangshuang were takeaway only, similar to casual lo-mei brands such as Juewei Duck Neck and Ziyan Baiwei Chicken. Dine-in hotpot guests could also order items such as braised pig trotters while waiting.
Third, the braised counter required only about 5 square meters and one salesperson. According to the brand's own data at the time, the in-store braised-item counter could generate daily revenue of RMB 3,000 under high labor and space efficiency.
Zhang said the company did not want to make money primarily from franchise fees. Its stated aim was to build long-term supply-chain returns.
Niu Shuangshuang used a joint-operation model: partners and the company invested together; the partner managed the store; Niu Shuangshuang handled operations. For third- and fourth-tier cities or community owner-operated shops, the company said it could help complete store transformation. Its goal was to recover opening costs in the first year and distribute 50% of monthly profit to partners.
At the time, the company had drafted terms for the joint-operation model and was discussing potential partners in Shanghai. Zhang said partner screening would consider capital strength, full-time commitment and ability to secure a suitable first-floor site.
The article connected this to China's low restaurant chain penetration. Meituan data cited in the article put China's restaurant chain rate at 12.8% in 2018, 13.3% in 2019 and 15.0% in 2020, compared with 54% in the United States and 49% in Japan. For hotpot in particular, the article argued that supply-chain advantage, chain operation and standardization were especially important.
Zhang acknowledged that Niu Shuangshuang had only operated one Shanghai store for several months and had been affected by COVID. She said the model was not yet fully validated. Future execution would depend on operations talent, hardware systems, logistics coordination and the team's ability to scale from one store to ten, then to one hundred or more.
The broader hotpot market data cited in the article showed China's hotpot market reaching RMB 499.8 billion in 2021, with an expectation of RMB 668.9 billion by 2025. Apart from 2020, the market had maintained growth, and the article argued that hotpot was easier than many restaurant categories to scale and standardize.
The article also pointed to pressure on mall traffic. Citing Winshang Big Data, it said that in the first quarter, 200 shopping centers above 50,000 square meters across nine key cities adjusted 5,400 branded stores: about 2,500 openings and nearly 3,000 closures, for an opening-to-closure ratio of 0.86, down 32% quarter on quarter. This pushed some operators to consider community locations.
Plum Ventures founding partner Wu Shichun was quoted by media as saying the investment reflected confidence in Niu Shuangshuang's model and in its combination of "hotpot ingredient supply chain plus community store experience." The article concluded that Zhang was targeting China's lower-tier market as well as first- and second-tier consumers who wanted mall-style hotpot near home.
Note: financing amounts, IPO/investment-related details, market forecasts and forward-looking brand targets are historical figures from the June 28, 2022 source article.